Scanning tunneling microscopy substrates

Figure 34. Scanning tunnel microscopy and local barrier height for gold clusters deposited on a single mtile Ti02 substrate [103].

I believe, it is fair to state that scanning tunneling microscopy and related techniques such as atomic force microscopy have a tremendeous potential in metal deposition studies. The inherent nature of the deposition process which is strongly influenced by the defect structure of the substrate, providing nucleation centers, requires imaging in real space for a detailed picture of the initial stages. This is possible with an STM, the atomic resolution being an extra bonus which helps to understand these processes on... 

As a last example on the fabrication of silver clusters, it is worth mentioning that they can also be prepared in microemulsions, where the small droplets of water act as nanoreactors. The surfactant used was AOT and the reducing agent was a very mild one, i.e. sodium hypophosphite. In this manner, fluorescent silver clusters with less than ten atoms are formed and showed planar shape when deposited onto gold substrates, as determined by scanning tunneling microscopy [67, 68]. 

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